Posts Tagged: japan

We only spent one night in Hiroshima, and one morning in Miyajima but we packed in quite a bit. We arrived at Narita Airport on a Friday morning and immediately proceeded to transport ourselves for six and a half hours across the country, and even this didn’t quite go as planned as there was some kind of delay on the train lines (even Japan is not immune). So arriving at Narita at 9am, we didn’t manage to leave until about 11.30am and didn’t get to Hiroshima until about 6pm, tired, sweaty, and smelly. So it was dinner time and we went out and looked for some grub heading back to plan out the day ahead.

Okonomiyaki, Hiroshima style

At the station we decided to try Okonomiyaki, Hiroshima style, which is basically Okonomiyaki with noodles fried in. It was okay, not great, probably regular Okonomiyaki is more to my liking. The noodles just end up making the pancake fall apart everywhere. But anyway, that was our take on Hiroshima dining, we didn’t spend enough time to try anything else other than instant noodles.

What did we do?

So the plan we decided on with our very precious time, was to visit the nuclear dome and the peace park in the morning then get down to Miyajima for a wander before jumping on a shinkansen to Kyoto in the afternoon. When we woke up the next morning, some of our party had noticed that a lot of people had been streaming past the building where we were staying all morning. So as we were heading to the station with all of our luggage, we saw the streams and streams of people dressed in red walking the other way. They were supporters of the local baseball team, the Hiroshima Carps, it turns out that Hiroshima is a big baseball town, and they had just won the central league championship, this merited a parade and celebration, and we had arrived just in time to see it, but we decided not to.

Without much time, we put our luggage into a locker at the station and caught the first bus to the nuclear dome, we didn’t plan on visiting the museum as that was most likely going to be depressing and take quite some time. We meandered around the dome building and then made our way across the bridge to the Peace Park (which was quite pleasant). We were a little disappointed that the Autumn colours had not arrived yet, but turns out we got it wrong, and Autumn moves from north to south, so Hiroshima is probably colouring right about now! Little did we know that the baseball parade meant that the bus stops on the park side were not operating and we had to go back to the dome bus stop to get back to the train station to get the train to the ferry station to Miyajima, oops.

Floating Torii, Miyajima

Floating Torii, Miyajima

Hiroshima baseball champions parade

Autumn is coming, Hiroshima War Memorial Peace Park

Nuclear Dome, Hiroshima

The ferry to Miyajima is quite a short ride and once on the island we decided to split up with the rest of the group and meet back in a couple hours.

Deer looking for a feed

Oysters are a local specialty on Miyajima so we had to try those, even with pesky deer roaming the streets looking for a free feed. This one was nosing around sleeping Oscar and me even though we didn’t have any food, I had to shoo it away before it woke up the little master. On to Itsukushima shrine and the floating torii, it’s quite a nice place to visit and I do wish we had more time there, in my head I have it planned out for next time when we visit Kyushu only. We’ll go and stay in Miyajima for one night and maybe Hiroshima as well (or just visit the Japanese garden there) so that we can walk around the trails around Mount Misen and get all of the best views of the torii with peak light. There are a lot of tourists there during the day, one would imagine in the later afternoon and evening, even in the early morning there would be much less people and a calmer atmosphere.

This was truly a hectic day and half, and travelling to Kyoto as well meant that this second day was as rushed as the first (albeit with some sight-seeing mixed in). We did a fair bit in Kyoto too, so I’ll probably break that up into several posts (possibly one for each day), see ya next time!

Accommodation

We stayed at an airbnb which was so-so, clean (obviously) and with wifi, but nothing great, weird traditional bathroom. I won’t bother linking to it since it was nothing special and you can find anything that will be the same or better.

Hello all, and we’re back, back from the wonderful land of Japan, which means that I’ve got a lot more content for the next couple months taking us into the new year, most likely, YAY! I got lots of pictures to sort through, not sure if I got anything that I’m really proud of but we’ll see, and we also spent some time doing some interesting not sight-seeing things which I’ll try to go through in more detail than my usual overview stuff.

So following the route, we arrived at Narita and jumped straight on the train headed for Hiroshima, in hindsight, this was a bad plan (as we only spent one night there) as we weren’t there long enough for the amount of travel to be worth it. I think next time we may visit Kyushu and go to Hiroshima/Miyajima from there spending a bit more time at Miyajima. From there we moved on to Kyoto for a big chunk (five nights) looking for Koyo (Autumn colours), we tried to vary our itinerary in Kyoto to avoid just visiting shrines and temples which I think we did pretty well.

Mount Fuji Koyo

On to Kawaguchi-Ko and Mount Fuji from there where some very clear weather treated us to some great views of the great volcano for our last two days (we stayed three). I don’t think we got 36 views of Mount Fuji, but we certainly covered quite a few angles from around Kawaguchi-Ko. After that it was on to Tokyo for some “relaxing” time, we usually just end up in Tokyo shopping and eating, that’s mostly what we did, I did actually manage to visit Shinjuku Gyoen for some chill out time (although even that was not too relaxing as I arrived late and had to rush around a bit). I don’t have many photos from Tokyo mostly because eating (mostly relatively boring stuff) and shopping aren’t the most photogenic of things. But we’ll get to all of that in the coming weeks with enough pictures to keep things interesting.

Hi again, I stopped procrastinating and decided to post this otherwise it would be another two weeks at least before anything went up, so yes, we are visiting Japan again for our annual-ish holiday. This time, we are re-visiting a bunch of places from our first visit but at a slightly later time of year, hoping for that koyo (Autumn colours).

Sleeping caterpillars

We’ll be stopping at Hiroshima (just for a very brief one night stopover), then Kyoto, Kawaguchi-ko, and finally Tokyo. I already sort of regret going to Hiroshima as it just doesn’t seem long enough to see Miyajima, Shukkeien Garden, and the peace memorial, among other things, but we booked the accommodation already so no going back. We’ll be doing some different things in Kyoto and Tokyo this time, less temples and more just taking in the culture, hopefully seeing Himeji which we missed last time due to renovations.

Emmy will be celebrating her birthday over there so hopefully it will be one that she can remember for a long, long time, if not, then I’ll probably be in hiding for a while. This time I will definitely be posting more content (not hard since I barely posted anything last time we did this trip) as I could barely find any references for this trip from my previous post. We’re also taking our parents, so this could very well be the greatest disaster ever known to man, wish us well!

You may wonder what the picture has to do with this trip, well, this is some kind of fern (in our garden, native I’m guessing), I think it has a very zen feel to it and is very Japanese in its simplicity and shape. But really, I took this picture a couple months ago and never bothered to upload it, so now that I have a chance, there it is ;).

And so the final days of our trip would be spent in Tokyo, the metropolis to end all metropolises, a shopping heaven, and an hectic place of noise, lights, and people. We didn’t do much sight-seeing considering we only had two and a half days there, we were pretty pooped from all the sight-seeing that we’d already done, we considered Asakusa and Meiji shrine/Harajuku, but after visiting Asakusa on our first full day, decided that our time would be better spent shopping :D, we’d already visited Meiji Shrine and Harajuku last time any way.

Uniqlo Mothershop

Kaminarmon

Shopping street near Kaminarimon

Senso-ji and Tokyo Sky Tree

Lantern at Senso-ji

Pagoda at Senso-ji

Tokyo Sky Tree

Street Lights near Kaminarimon

Air conditioner repair man

Shinjuku night lights

Sushi Train

Moon and the tower

Staying at City Hotel Lonestar in Shinjuju (near Shunjuku sanchome station) we were very close to the Shinjuku shopping district which was very handy. The hotel itself was pretty so-so, the continental breakfast consisted of croissants, herb bread, toast, and some other rolls, all of which needed to be toasted in the old fashioned small grill type oven, which if you leave the croissant in there for one second too long, it’s charcoal. The air conditioner in the room was weird, but did the job, sort of, it was a pretty small hotel with stairs at the front, so you have to carry your luggage in, it’s not too bad (about ten steps) but something to be aware of.

On to Asakusa, at least we did one touristy thing in Tokyo, although we will all admit that it was a bit of a letdown, the gate is nice, and the shopping street has some nice shops selling some cool stuff like prints, and yukatas, delicious red bean cakes, etc. The temple of Senso-ji is not what you expect from a Japanese temple, it’s loud, busy, and full of incense, it’s very busy and very un-zen, it’s much more like a Chinese temple. And so, we cut our visit to Asakusa shorter than we planned and headed back to Shinjuku for some more shopping, which is probably what we really wanted to do :D. But not before we saw a caricature drawing business, and got a picture drawn of little Oscar to go with our Kyoto picture we had drawn last time at Nishiki Market.

With only one and a half days of actual usable time, we spent all of our shopping time in Shinjuku so as to minimise travel time, and it still wasn’t enough, I hardly got anything :`(. This is a note for emmy for next time, don’t bother with Odakyu, Lumine 1 or 2, or any other shopping malls, just stick with Lumine EST and be done with. I was a bit disappointed with the range of shoes they had at ABC Mart, we went to all of them (at least all the ones we could find) and not one of them had a decent pair of Adidas Superstars for a reasonable price (I ended up getting a pair from Eastbay which I may or may not post about late, hopefully I do). We even found the sushi train restaurant that we went to last time, with it’s super cheap reasonable but not great sushi (something like 108 yen for the cheap plate, and 250 yen for the expensive plate), we’ll take that. We also went to Tokyu Hands which is like an upper class Daiso and spent a bunch of money there (probably my favourite shop along with Uniqlo/BIC Camera), although I didn’t get my umbrella despite it being one of the four things that I listed as must-buys :(.

And that was it for our latest sojourn to Japan, we got a return ticket on the NEX train when we arrived so we just needed to reserve our seats and wait for the train to take us to Narita, all very easy, not quite as good as going to Haneda but beggars can’t be choosers. Not sure if I mentioned it in the original Japan post, but Jetstar uses terminal 3 at Narita which has only a small selection of shops which have a very limited selection of goods, there’s a good book/magazine shop though, which is one of the negatives of flying direct with Jetstar. ANA and Japan Airlines both have direct flights from Sydney to Tokyo and possibly even arriving in Haneda, so that may be the option to go with next time. So with that, we say good bye to Japan again, and now we sit at home and wait until December when we next head to Vietnam, but don’t fret, I’ll try to keep this blog updated with great content :D.

The scenic highlight of the trip had finally arrived, we were going to the mountains, where all of our landscape photography dreams would come true, or at least we’d see some nice scenery with mountains. I didn’t realise beforehand how long it took to cover the entire route and it was fortunate that we actually researched it a bit more thoroughly the night before. We ended up waking up at about 6am so that we could get ourselves prepared to leave the hotel and get to the Dentetsu Toyama train station by about 7.20am so that we could get that train to start the route. The plan was basically to get to Murodo as early as possible which would give ourselves almost two hours to spend there before moving on to Kurobe Dam and and returning to Toyama. The timetable was very helpful as was japan guide and the alpen-route web site in general. The three stops before Murodo, Bijodaira, Midagahara, and Tengudaira, all have attractions such as hikes, forests, and waterfalls (Shomyo Falls), but we definitely didn’t have time for those, so we opted to maximise our time at the two easiest stops (we wouldn’t need to reserve spots on transport, etc, etc). We also had to be back in Toyama by approximately 5.30-6pm to have dinner to make sure that the little tyrant wouldn’t get too upset. This is why my recommendation for the route would be to stay for one or two nights in Midagahara or Murodo so that you could spend some time at those earlier stops as well, the nature walks looked really interesting, as well as the hike to the summit of Mount Tateyama from Murodo.

So from Dentetsu Station (right next to Toyama main station) you get a regular old train to Tateyama (which takes approximately an hour) before going on all the other different modes of transport, bus, cable car, trolley bus (through the mountains), rope way, another cable car, and then either returning on the same things, or carrying on to Ogizawa on another trolley bus and rail line. With the number of people there were, you better work out where the front of the lines are if you’re on a tight schedule like we were, we could not afford to miss one mode and be stuck waiting half an hour (or whatever it was) for the next one to come along. Everything was full, there were practically no views (unless you were squished to the window) on the cable cars because they were packed in so tight.

Toyama evening

Murodo

Murodo

Alpine flora, Murodo

View from Daikanbo

Kurobe Dam

Kurobe Dam

Tateyama Range from the train to Toyama

We arrived at Murodo at 10.45 (sharp, amazing thing this Japanese timetabling system), and the weather was very clear, blue skies and fresh, not too warm under the sun (at altitude) and not particularly cool (shorts weather when you’re walking around). The easiest thing to Mikurigaike, there are a few paths around the pond that will give great views of the surrounding mountains with reflections in the pond, alpine flora, and views of other tourists wandering around the area as well. We only had an hour and a half more or less so that’s all we did before heading back to queue up for the transport to Kurobe Dam, we just got in too, actually we missed the first bus, but then they had another bus which we were let on to so we didn’t screw up the schedule.

After going through Daikanbo and then down the rope way to Kurobe Dam, we had about a half hour to walk across the dam wall, have a look and then head back on our way to Toyama. We didn’t have enough time to go to the higher observation point, but did there was enough time to venture to the lower observation deck which had some good views of the flowing water so it wasn’t a total waste, before heading back.

After all that rushing about, thanks to the efficient Japanese transport system, we arrived back in Toyama at exactly the scheduled time and happily had dinner and were back in the hotel to put Oscar down to sleep at a normal time. Once that was all sorted we were able to get his baby sitter (grandma) in and then head back to Toyama station for some sushi at sushidama (sushi train) as a reward, good stuff, nothing wrong with a bit of fatty tuna.

We stayed at the Toyama Manten Hotel which I think I mentioned was a bit of a walk from the station, but not too bad, a bit on the business side, but again quite reasonable, the breakfast buffet was definitely the best one we had on our entire trip, it was also the second most expensive hotel that we stayed at, but apart from the odd shape of the room (which only affected us because of the stroller) everything was nice and dandy like sour candy!

Next, final stop, Tokyo, Shinjuku and Asakusa to be exact, and shopping till we dropped, actually, we didn’t have enough time for that, so we’ll just have to go back and do some more shopping!

Our next stop was Toyama, which according to my research was the gateway city to the northern Alps of Japan, Kurobe Gorge and the Tateyama Kurobe Alpine Route. Unfortunately for us, my research wasn’t in-depth enough and a short train ride away (25 minutes by shinkansen), Kanazawa awaited with its beautiful garden and many and varied shopping malls. Toyama had a couple of shopping malls but they were not of the same quality as Kanazawa and overall the city was pretty dull (not that we ventured out too far), although the sushi train at Sushidama near the train station was very nice. If we had our time again, we definitely would’ve stayed in Kanazawa rather than Toyama though, especially since we ended up only going on the Tateyama Kurobe Alpine route and not the Kurobe Gorge train. Oh well, live and learn.

So the topic of this post will be Kanazawa with the very well designed and laid out Kenrokuen which was great during the brightest time of the day in the middle of Summer, so I will only be able to imagine what it must be like during the golden hour (or blue hour) in the middle of Autumn, or cherry blossom season. You can only enjoy what’s put in front of you, so that we did as we strolled around the lovely garden finding shade wherever we could. There is a fountain that does not use any mechanical aids, only water pressure, of course the ubiquitous mossy rocks, and ponds with koi swimming around, everything you’d expect from a Japanese garden, all in one big, well thought out place. We spent about two hours there, but it could’ve easily been three or four hours especially if the weather was a bit more forgiving, there just weren’t enough shady spots to sit and relax (and also the little emperor woke up halfway through :D). It’s only a short bus ride from the station (ten minutes or so on the shuttle, 200 yen on weekdays, 100 yen on weekends or public holidays), entry was something like 600 yen.

Kenrokuen natural fountain

Kenrokuen

Kenrokuen

Kenrokuen

Kenrokuen

Kenrokuen

Kenrokuen

Kenrokuen

Kenrokuen

Kenrokuen

Kanazawa Castle Park

Omicho Market

We thought about crossing the road and visiting Kanazawa Castle Park, but got to one of the entrances that the sign said was free to go in but couldn’t find any way in, so we just carried on towards Omicho Market, a fresh food market near the Kanazawa Station. It was hot and sunny, and by the time we arrived at the market, we were famished, and very thirsty, a perfect combination for such a place, as there was plenty of fresh seafood to be had, as well as cheap drinks to go with it. Afterwards we headed back toward the station where there were at least two big shopping malls (and a nice big sculpture/structure out the front), we visited one of the malls which was definitely very nice and we could’ve spent more time there, we did have dinner as well before heading back to Toyama for the night.

As I’ve mentioned several times before, Kanazawa definitely would have been a better place to stay, especially after I found out that Kenrokuen is open after hours (or before hours) from 5am until opening time for free (but you have to leave before opening time obviously) which would’ve been good to get some pictures in better light with no other people, and also much cooler (maybe). But we won’t dwell on that, on to the Tateyama Kurobe Alpine Route next, lots of pictures. P.S. Another great reason to go to Kanazawa, there were at least two Mister Donuts there, and they still sell those magnificent custard donuts, make me drool just thinking about them!

Continuing on from our Japanese Summer trip, we took one last stroll around the magnificent Matsumoto Castle before catching a bus to Takayama in Gifu prefecture. This is a very mountainous area of Japan and so a train ride would have been very circuitous and expensive, the cheapest and fastest option was to travel by bus, the bus station in Matsumoto was very conveniently located across the road from the train station with buses running pretty much every hour to Takayama (two hours or so). Travelling by bus in Japan is almost as easy as travelling by train, not as comfortable, but certainly not horrible, not bad.

We stayed at K’s House Takayama which is a hostel style accommodation but booked private rooms with private bathrooms so that we were basically staying in a low-end hotel. We stayed at K’s House Kawaguchi-ko last time which was nice but maybe was easier considering that it was just the two of us. This time with a little bundle of joy it wasn’t as easy, but the room was big (the bathroom was small though, even by Japanese standards) with plenty of space to throw all of our junk. No breakfast (and no convenient bar fridge) but a convenient kitchen to prepare any meals and common area/small dining room makes up some for that. The room was reasonably priced and it’s very close to the station as well as the attractions in town. We had two nights in Takayama but weren’t too sure about what to do other than visit the antique street, and the temple walking course (unfortunately cut short by the little baby not feeling it). We also decided to head to Shirakawa-go on a half day trip (small, remote village that use traditional housing).

Sculpture near the market

Sannomachi at night

Temple on Higashiyama walking course

Temple on Higashiyama walking course

Gassho house in Shirakawa-go

Attic of Gassho house

Support beam of Gassho house

Museum pieces at Gassho house

Old fire pit in gassho house

Pond in Shirakawa-go

Shirakawa-go lookout

Sannomachi

Sannomachi

Lantern

Sannomachi street is only a few blocks away from our accommodation, ten minutes walk or so just past the river/canal and is full of souvenir shops, sake shops, and other food and beverage establishments. It’s very pretty with the old antique buildings and all the usual Japanese adornments, we didn’t buy much other than a couple of souvenirs but I would have like to pick up some sake, but then we’d be carrying it with us for ages.

Shirakawa-go is about 50 minutes by bus from Takayama, we decided to just get a guided tour which would be a little rushed but then we’d learn a bit about the place and where we could go, there is not much English spoken/written in the area. We went in the morning when you would hope that it would be a bit clearer, but it was a rainy day and nothing was going to clear up for us so we made do with what we had, a moody, misty morning. It is a very windy trip through mountains (mostly through tunnels though) which cuts the journey time down considerably, but also takes away from the scenery a bit too (I guess). There is a lookout point which provides a good view of the whole village (would be especially good at sunrise/sunset I would imagine) where the tour bus makes it first stop before dropping us off across the bridge from town. A short walk across the bridge and we were free to wander around the village and its assorted museums, souvenir shops, and miscellaneous other curios.

The tour guide recommended we visit Kanda house (神田家) as the main museum/house to get a feel for how the locals live (and lived) as well as a sake shop which we unfortunately didn’t have time to meander around. We only had an hour and a half or so in the village so didn’t really have time for much other than strolling around admiring the village architecture before having to wander back to the car park. The village is very picturesque and would make for some amazing photos with the right light and season, an overnight stay would perhaps be most worthwhile if you have the time, if not just so that you could sample some of the special local sake!

Afterwards we went back to Takayama for a little rest before attempting to visit some temples along the Higashiyama walking course, but unfortunately it’s not very pram friendly and the weather was against us, as well as a certain little cranky bum. We did see a couple of nice temples, or at least the exterior of a couple which included the ubiquitous moss and pond.

One of the local specialties is hida beef, a fatty, marbled beef like wagyu, and somewhat comparable to kobe beef (but not really), we enquired at the hostel about where we could taste some of this delicacy and found out about Maruaki, which is a restaurant where you cook your own food basically (similar to Korean BBQ but not quite). We arrived at about 6.30pm only to be told that it would be a fifty minute wait, which we agreed to (before wandering off to run some errands), we returned to see that we hadn’t lost our place in the line but that fifty minute wait eventually turned into almost two hours before we finally got a seat. It was a little frustrating for all the people waiting, a bunch of tourists mostly, and their frustrations were in turn frustrating my emmy.

Takayama local pale ale

Hida beef

Hida beef cooking

Anyway, we got in finally, and ordered a reasonably priced set meat and veg, rice, salad, miso soup along with some Korean style rib cuts (because emmy was afraid the set wouldn’t be enough) as well as some locally brewed beer. I’m a sucker for wagyu, fatty, marbled beef, and this was no different, the fat was cooking, and dripping, and the flavour, texture, and tenderness were all melting into my (and emmy’s) salivating mouth. The beer was pretty nice too, a good match for this fatty beef (maybe some hot green tea would’ve been better afterwards though), and in the end, it was just too much meat, let’s just say that it didn’t end well for me, I had to take the full brunt of the extra meat after all. I’ll just say that my tummy didn’t get to enjoy all that fatty goodness for too long, eww.

Fancy chopsticks

Our final morning in Takayama was spent at one of the daily morning markets, Miyagawa morning market which is along the Miyagawa River in the old town (apparently this is the bigger one). It’s not very big and mostly the stalls are just selling local produce, and maybe some trinkets, there was one stall selling custom yukatas so that was something, but they weren’t cheap. Apart from the stalls there are other souvenir shops and what not along the street, among them was this chopsticks shop, we were definitely on the hunt for some good chopsticks as the set we bought last time we were in Japan were such high quality that we’re still using them with only the slightest hint of deterioration, meanwhile we’ve had several sets of lower quality chopsticks wilt and fall by the way side.

The chopsticks in this shop were a bit more expensive than similar ones that could be purchased elsewhere (Tokyu Hands hello!) but they also provided a free engraving service on selected items. We picked out a pair each (including one for wormie) and got them engraved with our English names as well the katakana versions. They can also do kanji as well as hiragana, but we just left it at that, but if you get four-edge (as opposed to round) chopsticks, it’s definitely an option. I don’t remember the name or have any cards or anything from that shop but it would be pretty easy to find, it’s the only chopstick shop along that street, some very nice chopsticks indeed.

And with that we were on to our next destination, the relative highlight (or so I thought) of the trip, Toyama, near the northern Alps of Japan, we’d finally be seeing some real mountain scenery, my favourite kind! I’ll be back in a couple days to recap that one, should be a long one.

Welcome to the second instalment of this series of blog posts about our trip through central Japan (with a 14-month old baby no less). After making our way from O-Tsumago to Nagiso by bus, we got on a train for Matsumoto, partially as a transit stop, but also to see the castle. This train was really busy and I’m not sure if they had reserved seats or not, but we only got non-reserved seats, and with all our luggage we only managed to scramble a few empty seats right at the back of the train after pulling luggage through several carriages (as we weren’t sure where the non-reserved carriages were).

It was a pretty smooth ride as most train rides in Japan are, and we arrived in Matsumoto a little after 1pm I believe (about two hours or so), we stayed at Hotel Matsumoto Yorozuya which was again a bit of a business hotel (I guess they’re cheaper than normal hotels), it was pretty close to the train station, and pretty close to the castle, halfway in between each I would say. Convenient and efficient, otherwise a pretty forgettable experience (in terms of I can’t remember it or the breakfast at all) but a perfectly fine hotel since I can’t remember anything bad about it.

Beautiful Matsumoto Castle

The Keep Tower

Roof decorations

On to the castle, what a marvel, we weren’t able to see Himeji last time because it was being renovated (we didn’t want to see it in those conditions) and had to settle for Hikone Castle (which is also a national treasure and an impressive castle but not on the same scale), I’ve seen pictures of Matsumoto Castle before and was really looking forward to this, it was the main reason I wanted to come through Matsumoto. I can honestly say that it didn’t disappoint, what a magnificent castle and in such great condition, never having been attacked certainly helped protect its beautiful façade and surrounds. There was even a free English tour guide (the program apparently runs from April to November) which was a very nice addition. Unfortunately with a young baby we did not have the opportunity to visit the castle at night (nor did we get a chance to visit the museum, there’s also a woodblock print museum which I would recommend having bought some prints but not having actually seen the museum, the prints were very nice), so maybe if we ever come back this way (skiing? Probably not) we can see it in all its illuminated glory at night.

Matsumoto is also apparently well-known for having very fresh wasabi and they also eat horse meat sushi (basashi) as a delicacy. Well, when in Rome, we went to a soba restaurant just a couple blocks south east of the castle (they had English menus) and tried the basashi set as with some fresh cold soba. The soba was great, the wasabi was a real fresh thing that you grate onto your food that isn’t anywhere near as tear-inducing as the packaged product, the horse meat sushi was okay, but nothing special (a bit tougher than beef) give me fatty tuna or salmon any day.

Other than that we didn’t spend much time in this place, a pretty small city, I planned to use it as a transit to Takayama as the bus from Matsumoto only takes a couple hours, and the castle was a bonus (which I totally recommend 100%). Next stop, Takayama.

I took a lot of pictures so I’m going to have to separate these posts into a bunch for the places we visited so as not to overwhelm with pictures. We planned our trip so that we would leave Tokyo until the end of the trip (so that we could shop like crazy), which meant going from Narita Airport to Nagoya on the same day. But we also had to meet emmy’s friend in Tokyo because she wouldn’t be there when we got back, so we stopped at Tokyo station for lunch and then were on our way to Nagoya for our first night.

More running water near the minshuku

Running water near Minshuku Tsutamuraya

Moss covered logs on the Nakasen-do

Running water on the Nakasen-do

A dainty shrine or grave on the Nakasen-do

Trees along the Nakasen-do

Nakasen-do path near Tsumago

Minshuku Tsutamuraya

Lavender garden with a bee

From everything that we had heard, there wasn’t much to do or see in Nagoya, so it was really a rest/transit stop for us before heading to the Kiso Valley. We stayed at the Sanco Inn Nishiki which is near the Sakae district which is where all the shops and night life are, a small room (of course) but it was nice enough and had a breakfast option. We didn’t do anything there, just had a look around the shops but nothing else really, rested and waited until our train/bus ride to OTsumago.

Water mill at Tsumago

Old kettle in Minshuku Tsutamuraya

After travelling by train to Nagiso, and then finding a local bus to take us to Minshuku Koshinzuka (which has it’s own bus stop) we were informed by the inn-keeper that due to a funeral service we would not be able to stay there, but that they’d arranged for us to stay at a different minshuku for the two nights that we were scheduled for, Minshuku Tsutamuraya, just down the road. It was no skin off our back as the little old lady running Minshuku Tsutamuraya was very nice as well, although we can only guess how nice Koshinzuka must be since it is the top rated minshuku on tripadvisor. It’s really not easy to reserve a room at these places since the contact details are really hard to find, and they speak little to no English, but here is a page with telephone contact details under the Accommodation in Tsumago and Magome section, and here is a page with reservation options. Our minshuku actually had wifi amazingly whereas Koshinzuka apparently does not, make of that what you will.

It was a charming place, very old building (about 130 years old), they had a pretty shiba inu, and the little river running right outside, the lady was very nice, and had a great time playing with our little monkey. The food (breakfast and dinner) we had was of a very good quality and served with some kind of special osake which was very different to what we are used to. Wholly recommended, maybe Koshinzuka would be a little more authentic, I’m not sure, but sometimes you can’t completely withdraw yourself from the outside world.

In terms of things to do here, basically there is the nakasen-do between Tsumago and Magome, and obviously the two towns themselves. Be very careful though, there is only an ATM in Nagiso (which may or may not be open, maybe only on weekdays) and one in Nakatsugawa (need a bus from Magome) so make sure you have cash to pay the minshuku. Getting this out of the way early (maybe I mentioned it in my previous post already?), having a baby with us meant that we pretty much had to do everything during the middle (hottest/sunniest part) of the day which was a bit painful, but the scenery is still beautiful during the day. Tsumago has been kept in a much more authentic manner than Magome, both towns have souvenir shops aplenty and quaint old buildings and museums (not that we visited any of them). We wandered up and down the main streets, but due to unforeseen circumstances (very cranky baby), only one of us was able to walk the nakasen-do from Magome to Tsumago. We planned to do it that way because it is mostly downhill (the first two kilometres or so including Magome) are pretty much uphill then the rest of the way is smooth sailing

The path is very well signed (can’t remember if there was much English though) and easy to follow, the terrain is beautiful and apart from the first part out of Magome, mostly covered by trees. There are mossy green forests, running water creeks, and waterfalls all over the place, but in my rush (I wasn’t sure where my companions were) I only took one side-trip to Odaki and Medaki falls near OTsumago which were quite impressive. It only takes about two hours if you walk at a decent pace but probably three hours is good for stopping and taking pictures as well as resting (Tsumago to Magome would probably take longer). I didn’t see any bears but apparently they’re there, and there are bells along the path that you can ring that might scare them away (I did not want to run into any bears so you better believe I rang them).

We spent two nights there because we didn’t want to rush the nakasen-do which was a good idea for us, but with a luggage forwarding service and less cranky babies, you can probably do it with one night, we caught the bus to Nagiso before getting a train to our next destination, Matsumoto, which will be the topic of my next post.

And we’re back, two weeks travelling around central Japan was fun, but taking a 14-month old baby with us certainly made things more challenging and cost us some opportunities. But it was well worth it even if we didn’t get to do all that we had hoped.

Holiday Route

Flying Jetstar and arriving at (and departing from) terminal 3 was already less than ideal, although terminal 3 doesn’t have any of the good shops that terminal 1 and 2 have, so we weren’t able to do any last minute shopping before leaving the country, but at least Jetstar has direct flights. That was a plus considering that the flight was only about ten hours each way (the return flight during the day was much more bearable than dealing with a tired and extremely cranky baby on an overnight flight).

This was the first time that I’ve ever flown Jetstar on a long haul flight (I’ve flown to Tasmania domestic a couple of times) and I’m really not sure that I would do it again, even though they have the direct route to Japan. Once you add in all the extras it’s only slightly less (a couple hundred bucks each) than a full service carrier so in terms of value it’s definitely out the window. The direct flight option is where it has the advantage, Singapore is always the number one option, but Japan Airlines has direct flights from Sydney so that might be a better option next time.

Pond in Central Park, Nagoya

In the end, the main issues we had were that our (sometimes) cranky baby needed to be baby-sat/fed at the most inopportune times, such as dinner time (sunset) and breakfast times (sunrise), the best times to go anywhere because of:

Heat, the Japanese summer is blisteringly hot (and stuffy)

Lighting, for photography the golden hours and the blue hours are the best times to shoot during the day, but perhaps due to poor planning as well we ended up out during the hottest, brightest times of the day (the middle).

As always though, Japan is so much fun, and so amazing in almost every way, it really is like a giant theme park, the food is delicious usually, and relative to Australian prices for similar food, it’s a bargain. The shopping is endless, and the way that nature, history, and technology come together is something magical (usually). I really hope that next time we can go in Autumn or Spring (cherry blossom) season to avoid the heat, and also see some different colours on the natural side of things. Not sure where we would head next time, maybe Hokkaido, or somewhere else based on further reading. Any way, I’ve got lots of pictures coming so I’ll be breaking those down into several posts over the next couple of weeks.